Tech Category Catalog

Overview

As part of the LeanIX Best Practices for Tech Category and for the Lifecycle Catalog, LeanIX is using the Technology Business Management (TBM) Council’s TBM Solutions layer version 4 (TBM Taxonomy - TBM Council) as our Tech Category. The Tech Category Catalog, as part of the Reference Catalogs, is the LeanIX solution to enable LeanIX users easily adopt the TBM Solutions layer as their standard taxonomy.

Features

The objective is to enable you, as LeanIX users, to adopt the TBM Solutions layer as the Tech Category taxonomy for workspaces, in a self-service manner. The Tech Category Catalog allows you to perform:

  1. Excel Export
  2. Import TBM
  3. Migrate to TBM Taxonomy for Lifecycle Catalog customers

What do you get with Tech Category Catalog?

The Tech Category Catalog is available for all Application Portfolio Management (APM) customers. With this feature, you would have access to the following:

  • Adds a new "Catalog Status" to the Tech Category Fact Sheet to indicate whether it is linked to the Tech Category Catalog
  • Excel export to understand TBM Taxonomy and define your Tech Category taxonomy with recommendations from TBM, where available
  • Import TBM Taxonomy
  • Migrate to TBM Taxonomy for Lifecycle Catalog customers

Excel Export

The Excel Export provides a description of what TBM Taxonomy is and a view of the customer’s workspace with TBM Taxonomy. The Excel file represents this on a high level for the existing Tech Categories and also on a more detailed level, for every IT Component. (IT Component assignment is only visible for our Lifecycle Catalog customers). This enables customers to decide whether to adopt TBM Tech Categories, in a complete or partial format.

How To Access Excel Export?

Once the Tech Category Catalog feature is activated, you can go to Admin > Reference Catalogs > Tech Category Catalog

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How can you use this to define taxonomy?

By reviewing the TBM solutions layer taxonomy with its definitions, you are encouraged to answer the following:

  1. What is the TBM Solutions layer?
  2. Does the TBM Solutions layer meet the customer’s criteria for a standard Tech Category taxonomy?
  3. At a high level, how does my taxonomy compare against the TBM Solutions layer?
  4. Does my current taxonomy have more or fewer details than the TBM Solutions layer?
  5. What would the mapping to my IT Components look like, now vs. once I adopt the TBM Solutions layer?
  6. Do I want to manage the Tech Category assignment for my IT Components or would I like LeanIX to manage this?

Based on the above factors, then you can decide:

  1. Whether you want to adopt TBM or not?
  2. If Yes, do you want to adopt TBM wholly or partially?
  3. What does the final Tech Category taxonomy look like?

After deciding on the Tech Category taxonomy, the next step would be to Import TBM and then Assign IT Components to the TBM Tech Category.

Import TBM

In this release, we provide a mechanism for customers to view all TBM hierarchies, and import these to their workspaces from the Admin section under Reference Catalogs > Tech Category Catalog > Import TBM

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Note

Before Importing TBM hierarchies, ensure that the Meta Model configuration of the workspace supports at least level 3 hierarchy for the Tech Category Fact Sheet

By clicking on Import TBM Button, customers can view the entire TBM Solutions taxonomy. They can select Tech Categories with hierarchies and import to the workspace by clicking on the “Import & Link” button on the top right. The “Import & Link” action imports any non-existent Tech Categories (along with their full hierarchy) and links existing Tech Categories to relevant entries in the Tech Category Catalog. Such a linking allows for automatic assignment of IT Components to Tech Categories based on configuration in the Lifecycle Catalog.

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Assign IT Components to TBM

APM customers can now start using the TBM Solutions layer by assigning their IT Components to the TBM Taxonomy. A detailed explanation for the TBM hierarchies and examples are also available in the Excel template to assist with this process.

Migrate to TBM for Lifecycle Catalog customers

We provide an automated process by which Lifecycle Catalog customers can now migrate to TBM by

  • Easy adoption of TBM & assignment of linked IT Components to TBM
  • Cleanup of legacy tech category

Under the Admin > Reference Catalogs > Lifecycle Catalog, customers now will see the option to migrate to TBM with 3 sequential steps:

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  1. Import all TBM → For Lifecycle Catalog customers, LeanIX recommends to import all TBM hierarchies. Selecting this option does this automatically for customers, without having to use the Import Wizard. Alternatively, if you want to import TBM partially, you can use the Import Wizard and skip this step.

  2. Assign IT Components (linked to Lifecycle Catalog) to TBM → This step will assign all linked IT Components to TBM hierarchy, that is imported in Step 1.

  3. Archive legacy Tech Category → Selecting this step will archive the legacy Tech Category, which was created as part of linking to Lifecycle Catalog. If the customer does NOT have any legacy Tech Category, this step can be skipped.

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LeanIX Recommendation

LeanIX recommends selecting all 3 options in the “Migrate to TBM” to ensure that all linked IT Components are assigned a Tech Category and the Tech Category taxonomy is fully aligned to TBM.

Partial Import of TBM

However, customers have the flexibility to choose TBM partially. In this case, LeanIX recommends the following steps:

  1. Choose the TBM hierarchies needed in the Import Wizard (under Admin > Reference Catalogs > Tech Category Catalog > Import TBM) instead of Step 1 in “Migrate to TBM”.

  2. Assign IT Components (linked to Lifecycle Catalog) to TBM → In this step, linked IT Components are assigned to TBM, only if the TBM hierarchies are imported. If a linked IT Component has a TBM hierarchy that the customer has NOT imported, it would be left unassigned.

  3. Archive legacy Tech Category → Selecting this step will archive the legacy Tech Category, which was created as part of linking to Lifecycle Catalog. If the customer does NOT have any legacy Tech Category, this step can be skipped.

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Future Assignment of IT Components to TBM

Once a “Migrate to TBM” is completed, all future linking of IT Components to Lifecycle Catalog will now assign TBM Tech Category to the linked IT Component, if customers have selected the configuration to sync Tech Category relations in Lifecycle Catalog.

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No new creation of Tech Category automatically during linking IT Components to Lifecycle Catalog

To give customers complete control over their Tech Category taxonomy, Reference Catalog will no longer create any new Tech Category as part of linking to Lifecycle Catalog. It will merely assign the linked IT Component to the TBM Tech Category customers have imported (via the Import to TBM functionality (or) the Import Wizard). If customers have NOT imported the corresponding Tech Category, it will leave the IT Component unassigned.